Chemotherapy is a form of medical treatment for cancerous diseases (antineoplastic chemotherapy) or infections (anti-infective chemotherapy, also antimicrobial chemotherapy). It uses substances which exert their damaging effect in an optimally targeted manner on specific pathogenic cells or microorganisms and kill off the latter or inhibit them in their growth. With this approach advantage is taken of the different structure of multi-cell (human being) and single-cell organisms (bacteria) in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases. In the treatment of malignant tumors most of these substances exploit the ability of the tumor cells to divide rapidly, since these cells are more sensitive in their reaction to cell division malfunctions than healthy cells. However, said substances have a similar effect on healthy cells with a similarly efficient ability to divide, as a result of which side-effects such as hair loss or diarrhea can occur.
The desire to treat diseased compartments of the body completely without distributing the chemotherapeutic agent in the remaining healthy organism cannot be adequately realized using the systemic application routes known in the prior art. Different regional and targeted pharmaceutical applications have been developed in the last 20 years in order to protect healthy cells against increased exposure and achieve a higher concentration of the active agent in the area of application, e.g. a tumor.
Magnetic guidance of pharmaceuticals, also known as drug targeting, is one possibility of targeted tumor treatment. With this approach, chemotherapeutic agents, such as e.g. cytostatic drugs, are reversibly bound to ferrofluids, which are colloidal solutions of magnetic nanoparticles, and applied intravascularly. Said ferrofluids are then concentrated in a specific compartment of the body by exposure to an external magnetic field. They serve as transportation vehicles for concentrating the bound chemotherapeutic agents in the desired target region via the bloodstream when a corresponding magnetic field is focused over said region.
With many diseases it is desirable to perform diagnosis and treatment ideally simultaneously in a cohesive process without the need to reposition the patient.